I came across this news article this evening that at first I was sure had to be hoax.  So I did some quick searching and it only took me a moment to find it on a reputable news site (MSNBC).  Here is the link to it.

In a nutshell, a 24 yr old Dutch nurse was asked to provide services of a sexual nature for her 42 yr old male disabled patient.  She refused, and the patient had the woman fired from his care.  The nurses union got involved and has started a nationwide campaign against the practice of patients demanding sexual favors from nurses.  There are apparently a number of these patients who claim it is within the standard of care for nurses to provide these services.  Oh, but I’m quite sure it is NOT part of the standard of care, and that is just the stance that the nurses union is taking.  We, nurses, are NOT prostitutes.  What we ARE is professional, educated health care team members.  And I can’t believe in this day and age, the public needs to be reminded of that fact… no matter what country you live in.  To think that we as nurses are responsible for providing sexual services to our patients is demeaning and insulting.  It essentially says we are nothing but prostitutes, who provide those services for pay.  I don’t know a single fellow nurse who would at all be ok with being seen this way or treated this way.  It’s absurd to me that this topic even needs to be discussed.  Helping a patient gain sexual satisfaction is so far across any line of professionalism that it shouldn’t need to even be discussed.  It is so incredibly inappropriate that I’m astounded it goes on.  But according to the young lady who was fired from this particular patient’s care, it does happen.  The news article states that she witnessed “some” of the patients other nurses providing these services to him.  I don’t know how many others she witnessed or in what manner they were doing this, but neither of those things are important.  What’s important is that this inappropriate, unprofessional and flat out wrong behavior happened.  Wow.  Apparently, according to the nurses union, the police are now investigating.  I’m happy to hear that.  So… feel free to add your thoughts and comments.  Always happy to hear from my fellow bloggers.

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